Are you living in a perpetual Saturday? Stuck in a place where death won’t come and healing hasn’t even shown you a glimpse of hope?
Jeff Manion wrote a book called the Land Between – Finding God in Difficult Transitions. I highly recommend it. Especially if you are living in Saturday – the day between.
He says, “The wilderness is a great space to be enrolled in the school of trust. Perhaps if we can grasp the purpose of our Land Between, we can cooperate with that purpose rather than resisting it. The purpose is trust. The purpose is transformation…We need to be transformed. We need true, lasting transformation in our lives. We dread the Land Between because it involves suffering. We think of the Land Between as an experience we’re going to have to get through and survive. But if we can understand what God desires from these experiences, we can cooperate with him and allow him to produce in us the very things we need. We can resist a spirit of complaint and turn toward God, crying out to him honestly with our hearts, believing that he hears us. We can trust him to provide in ways we might not even know to ask for—trust that he sees us, knows our needs, and looks on us with loving concern. We can see the discipline he applies to our lives as a saving, transformational action. When we understand the purpose of the Land Between, we can cooperate with God so that our hope—not just for relief but for lasting transformation—can be realized. The Land Between is fertile ground for transformational growth.”
Right, just wanted what you wanted to hear on your Saturday as you hang in a state of unbalance. The last thing you are hoping for is transformation. You are looking for restoration. Spoiler alert – restoration is not what you are going to get.
After your Saturday time in the wilderness, you will never be the same.
You will be changed. One way or another, for the good, the bad or the ugly. You will be changed.
You will have a new normal. You will be transformed. Don’t fight it. It is inevitable.
So quit paddling upstream. Embrace the transformation. Accept, be willing, and allow God to work a mighty deed and make beauty from ashes.
He can. He is able. He is strong enough. He loves you enough. He weaves a beautiful tapestry when we get out of His way, lean into Him and let Him work.
The past two days I’ve been wielding a chain saw to some out of control trees and thorny vines in my yard. It might not look like it but that pile is huge (to me) and those trees won’t mess with me again, they know who’s boss now.
They have been transformed. I was the master of how they will look from now on. I will keep hacking and trimming them into submission. I will kill off the thorny vines that have been strangling them, if I didn’t kill them already. These trees will grow and flourish better now. They have been pruned and given a lighter load to grow with.
As I was cutting, besides focusing on not hacking my body parts off, I realized I could not have done this 2 years ago. I could not have done this 5 years ago. I have strength again. I have energy again. I have ability again. God did that, not me.
It also occurred to me that during my wilderness of healing and suffering – during my Saturday of waiting – God was hacking off parts of me. He was pruning my need for control. He was chopping off my ungratefulness. He cut through the things of the world that were choking out my time and desire for Him. God trimmed and transformed me. He did that all so I could grow and flourish.
What is happening in and to your life while you wait on our Saturday?
Let Him prune and lift and ease your burden so that you can grow for when Sunday comes.
Blessing and healing,
Janice Fairbairn – The Lyme Evangelist
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